Etoile de Dakar featuring Youssou N'Dour: Once Upon a Time in Senegal - The Birth Of Mbalax 1979-1981Released by Stern's Music on Monday, 10th May, 2010.It's a double CD in jewel-case with 24-page booklet, sleeve notes by Mark Hudson, lots of nice pictures etc.

4-star review by Robin Denselow in today's Guardian:"This is the second outstanding Youssou N'Dour album released this year. First came I Bring What I Love, with its live reworking of songs from across his career. Now follows this two-CD set chronicling "the Birth of Mbalax 1979-81" and the history of the band that launched N'Dour's career, before he left with other musicians to form Super Etoile. In the Etoile era, Senegalese music was in transition, and the songs here include echoes of lilting African-Cuban fusions made famous earlier by Orchestra Baobab, along with bursts of western-influenced psychedelia (listen to the wailing guitar work on Tolou Badou Ndiaye), and of course the new driving Mbalax style, with its emphasis on the tama talking drum. The young N'Dour was just one of the lead vocalists and songwriters with this band, and can be heard performing alongside El Hadji Faye and the late Eric M'Backe N'Doye, two sturdy singers who would never match his success. N'Dour was already in a league of his own, as shown by his thrilling, declamatory performances on M'Badane, or the intense and commanding Sama Guenth-Gui. It's an impressive compilation that's helped by the remastering of the original recordings, and by well-researched sleeve notes."

Not that I wish to sound like a cheapskate, but how many of the tracks are not to be found on one of the earlier Etoile de Dakar series from 1979 through 1982, also on Stern's and now up to five volumes I think? I mean this is a very tempting package, but do I need it given prior acquisitions?

I'm told that six tracks (out of 23) have never been released outside Senegal. All tracks have also been "sensitively remastered". And the 3 previous Stern's releases (yep, only 3!) have been out of print for ages.

Dominic wrote:I'm told that six tracks (out of 23) have never been released outside Senegal. All tracks have also been "sensitively remastered". And the 3 previous Stern's releases (yep, only 3!) have been out of print for ages.

Thanks for the word, Dominic. That makes it tempting — about 25% new (to me) material plus pretty sleeve and Mark Hudson notes!

But I have four actual CDs in the previous series on the shelf plus a download of Volume 5 (legal, don't worry!).

Funny about the "sensitively remastered". Probably means they sound better than even the original cassettes, which I assume was the Senegalese format.